Gaffney Journal

New Blog Site

2011-12-09T13:40:00.001-08:00

Please migrate with me to my new wordpress blog site.

http://gaffneyjournal.wordpress.com/blog/

Thank you!

Chocolate Time Paradox

2011-12-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

Took two pieces of chocolate.

Dove’s first piece of advice: “Try something new tomorrow.”

Dove’s second piece of advice: “Love like there is notomorrow.”

According to my love advice, there is no tomorrow, so I can’tdo anything new, but I’m supposed to do something new tomorrow, which means I’mnot loving properly today, but if I love like there’s no tomorrow…

Now my head hurts so much, I don’t feel much like loving ortrying anything new.

I guess too much chocolate can be bad for you…

Just my thoughts,

Sean

Glimmer of Hope: Seconds of Beauty

2011-12-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

A collection of one second long films with the theme of "beauty."

Enjoy.

Seconds Of Beauty - 1st round compilation from The Beauty Of A Second on Vimeo.

Duck

2011-12-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

The video below is nothing special; just a duck following a dude. Amusing.

I'm posting it because it stirs up deeper meaning for me.

The only pet I've had in my life that was just mine was a duck. Used to follow me around too.

Second grade, I won a contest that allowed me to take home one of the little fellows that we hatched as a classroom project.

Found out after the fact that parents would define that as "losing" a contest, but oh well.

I liked my duck for the short time I had him (he was a victim of our house burning down. There are some good stories that go with that - remind me to tell you them sometime.)

So, for the memories, here is a clip of a man and his duck.

Just my thoughts,

Sean

Christology of Who: Dalek

2011-12-06T10:00:00.000-08:00

A look at a few of the spiritualthemes in Doctor Who, episode “Dalek” by Robert Shearman.

SPOILER ALERT: I will be givingaway the end of the episode.

Episode bits pulled from Who Transcripts.

One of the ongoing themes of Doctor Who is the question of “whatdoes it mean to be human?”

(Before I go on, I realize that this line of thought mightseem like a cheat – the blog series I am writing is supposed to be aboutChristology after all. But it does/will tie in, as the claim my faith makes isthat Christ was fully human and fully G-d. So a study of “what does it mean tobe human” plays to both The Humanism of Who and The Christology of Who.)

The Doctor has always been fascinated by humanity, borderingon an unhealthy obsession. He dithers on about how special they are.

How special are they?

The 21^st Century reboot takes a long look at thatquestion by starting with a race that is very, very much not human: the Daleks.

The Daleks are, well, here’s the Doctor to explain:

THE DOCTOR
A nightmare. It's a mutation. The Dalek race was genetically engineered -every single emotion was removed except hate.

The Daleks have one function: to exterminate anything that isdifferent, that is not a Dalek. They live to kill.

The Time Lords (the Doctor’s race) and the Daleks wiped eachother out in the time war, with only the Doctor surviving. (That’s not quitetrue, but it was the common wisdom of the day.)

In the episode “Dalek,” it is discovered that one Daleksomehow survived, was thrown to earth, and is being held captive by a collectorof such things.

Rose touches the weakened Dalek (out of sympathy), and the creature absorbsher DNA and uses that to regain itsstrength. Then the Dalek proceeds to break out of its prison, going on akilling spree along the way.

A problem arises though – the Dalek is no longer pure Dalek,but now has a slight case of the Roses: the absorbed human DNAis affecting the creature, as shown when it prepares to exterminate Rose:

ROSE
And now what? What're you waiting for?

DALEK
I feel your fear.

ROSE
What do you expect?!

DALEK
Daleks do not fear. Must not fear.

It shoots its death ray wildly at the wall either side of Rose.

DALEK (CONT'D)
(slightly hysterical, even scared)
You gave me life. What else have you given me? I am contaminated!

The poor creature finds that it can not kill without feeling(killing now has a cost), knows fear, knows pity, knows compassion.

At the climatic moment of the episode, The Dalek, long heldunderground, blasts a hole in the ceiling, revealing the sun. Noticing that Roselonged for the sun, the Dalek exposes itself to the beams – to feel the warmthof sunshine.

That is a joy that the Dalek can not live with; suchfeelings are to be disdained – they are messy, uncontrollable, not pristinelike the killing machine should be.

The television series will continue to explore what it means to behuman – but the first step was made here in this episode:

Humanity feels.

Just my thoughts,

Sean

Next up: The Parting of Ways

Sling Baby

2011-12-05T10:00:00.001-08:00

I worked on the team for two commercials for the "Doritos Crash the Superbowl" contest. Pretty proud of them, especially the first (I was more involved with Sling Baby).

Enjoy.

Sling Baby

Kitty Heist

Revealing-ations

2011-12-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

Self explanatory. Enjoy.

Blowin' in the Wind

2011-12-01T09:23:00.001-08:00

If the answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, then So Cal just got a whole lot of answers.

I hope somebody was taking notes.

jmt,

Sean

Pangs of Moralizing

2011-11-30T10:00:00.000-08:00

As one who has his feet in both the world of writing and theworld of the church, I am often asked to create a piece of writing (play,screenplay, story) for faith based organizations.

I like doing so, as it gives me a chance to blatantly blendtwo important areas of my life – faith and art. (These two areas are blended ineverything I do, just not always so blatantly.)

But there are times when my producers try to push me to leanaway from story and focus solely on getting a message across – less art, morepropaganda.

It is tricky to try and explain why that iscounterproductive. Coming from a world where sermons can lead audiences indroves to the altar, the people from the church business can’t help but tothink of story as just another way to preach.

But story is a lousy preaching platform; and if you getthose same folk to honestly talk about the stories that impacted their lives,you’ll likely find them sermon-free. Preaching just isn’t a strength of the medium.

A story works emotionally first; if there is a message, itcomes through the experience, not by stating a moral.

My pastor last week talked about the difference between exposingpeople to truth, and experiencing truth. Unless someone experiences truth, itdoesn’t quite stick.

Storytelling is a way to get people to experience; at leastthat is what it does best.

Take a look at Jesus’ parables – while there may bepreaching and teaching around the stories, there isn’t much within the stories.

Even stories that contain great speeches – think On the Waterfront,or Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, or Some More Recent Movie That IJust Can’t Think of Right Now, the monologues are earned by the speaker throughexperience, and are almost commentaries on the story rather than sermons.

So what does one do when they want to tackle a big issuewithin a story? TheBitter Script Reader has a nice write up on the topic, examining a Buffythe Vampire Slayer episode written by Jane Espenson.

A captive audience...

Well worth the look, as an experienced script reader digsinto a work by one of the better writers in television.

The summary: serve the story first, and give all sidestheir due.

Favorite line from theblog post:

“Even if Jane Espenson had a point she wanted to make, sheseems to be smart enough to know that simply preaching an idea that goesunchallenged isn't the way to win converts to your side.”

So, if you want to hire me to write a piece that includes amessage, expect me to fight for the story first – only because I really careabout the message.

Just my thoughts,

Sean

Clarifying

2011-11-29T10:00:00.000-08:00

My fancy hotel didn't have the typical teeny bottles of shampoo.

Instead they provided their guests with "Clarifying Hair Cleanser."

Yep, they used the word "clarifying" to obscure their meaning.

Nicely done, irony hotel.

Just my thoughts,

Sean

Thankful for: Childhood Magic

2011-11-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

Jeffrey Overstreet's nostalgic review of the newest from the world of the Muppets.

Thankful for: Her

2011-11-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

Thankful for: Dear Friends

2011-11-25T10:00:00.000-08:00

Thankful For: Random Reminders of Family

2011-11-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

Thankful for: Books

2011-11-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

For as long as I remember, I have been immersed in books.

When I was in elementary school, our teacher had acompetition for who could read the most books in a month. I decided to start byreading all of the Happy Hollister books.

There were 33 of them.

I got through them before the month was out.

The other kids never had a chance.

My house was the perfect setting for a serial reader. My dadgot a hold of a bunch of gun ammo cases, took off the lids, flipped them ontheir side and made book shelves for the front hall.

Floor to ceiling of books, many with covers blackened, areminder that they survived the fire that claimed our earlier house. But thepages inside were clean.

But that wasn’t nearly enough space, so when the back porchwas walled in to create an extra room, it became the de facto library. (Some joke that our bathroom was a library - it wasn't. It was a reading room. There's a difference.)

Three of the four walls were bookshelves; again, floor toceiling, every nook and cranny crammed with reading material.

When I would encounter my various bouts of insomnia, I wouldsneak downstairs, grab my coat (the room was not insulated) and spend hours inthe back room.

I’d climb on the furniture, pick an upper shelf, and run mythumb along the book spines until I found a title that held my interest.

Maybe one of the dozens of RD condensed book collections, ora biography, or a mystery, or a science book decked out with illustrations or alegal textbook (I was enthralled with the law). If the title grabbed me, I wouldpull out the volume and start reading, perched precariously on the back of thesofa or the arm of a chair.

If it didn’t hold my interest, it would go back on theshelf. (I tried reading Peyton Placelike this; the cover promised it would be shockingly fascinating. It wasn’t.)

If the book grabbed my attention, I would slowly sink downinto the furniture and read until my eyes drooped. Then off to bed.

I have been thinking about my childhood reading habitsbecause of Disney and Don.

Disney is making a movie of the John Carter of Mars books; Isaw the trailer and realized that I hadn’t read any of those adventures.

Even though I promised Don that I would.

Don was one of my best friends, and also a voracious reader.While my reading was wide, his was deep.

Sci-fi was his game, and the Dune trilogy or Foundationseries were light reading for him.

We would constantly recommend books to each other – usually Iwas pushing murder mysteries of the Nero Wolf / Ellery Queen vein; he wastrying to get me to follow him through Herbert and Asimov.

He was the one who pushed me to get past the movies and readTARZAN, for which I am very grateful. (One of the best looks at sociology outthere.)

And as Tarzan author Edgar Rice Burroughs also wrote anotherfavorite series of his – the stories of John Carter’s adventures on Mars -- itdidn’t take much to get me to agree to read some of those books as well.

Except, I never did get around to it.

Until now – just finished A PRINCESS OF MARS; a ripping goodtale. (Burroughs tackles another foreign society – but of another planet ratherthan just a jungle on earth.)

So, Don – thank you for the recommendation.

And thank you for not holding me to a time limit on mypromise…

Just my thoughts,

Sean

Kids Rolling in the Deep

2011-11-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

The singer is ten; the drummer thirteen; all other instruments played by their fifteen year old brother.

Don't want to brag or nothin', but when I was her age I could play "Drink to Me with Thine Eyes" on the accordion.

Both hands.

Enjoy.

Buttons and Bows

2011-11-21T10:00:00.000-08:00

Young girls should be dainty, and dress with bows in their hair.

Or at least bows in their hands.

Here are two such girls that I am looking forward to seeing on the big screen.

Dandy Dance

2011-11-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

Today's glimmer of hope:

Christology of Who: Boomtown Part Two

2011-11-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

A look at a few of the spiritualthemes in Doctor Who, episode “Boomtown” by Russell T. Davies.

SPOILER ALERT: I will be givingaway the end of the episode.

Episode bits pulled from Who Transcripts.

For part one, go here.

The story so far: Margaret (aka Blon Fel Fotch), is about tobe sent back home to a waiting death penalty by the Doctor. She has madeseveral efforts to convince the Doctor to let her go, none of them work.

So Margaret forgets arguments, turns the table on theDoctor, and prepares to use the Tardis to blow up the world and ride hersurfboard to freedom.

But in doing so, she exposes herself to the Heart of theTardis.

Bathed in its light, really.

Breathing heavily, Margaret stares into the light, as if forgettingeverything else. Her voice becomes dreamy and vague.

MARGARET
It's ... so bright...

THE DOCTOR
Look at it, Margaret...

MARGARET
... Beautiful...

THE DOCTOR
Look inside, Blon Fel Fotch. Look at the light.

Margaret is transfixed by the light, and her grip on Rose relaxes. Rosestumbles out of the way and back to Jack. Margaret continues to stare into thelight, a blissful smile spreading across her face. Then, she looks up at the Doctorwho smiles slightly.

MARGARET
(softly, genuinely)
Thank you ...

She is engulfed by the light, and when it clears, her body-suit flops ontop of the extrapolator, empty.

She’s not dead, as one (or at least Jack) might suppose.

Rather, the Spirit that has engulfed her transforms her backinto an egg.

ROSE
She's an egg?

THE DOCTOR
Regressed to her childhood.

JACK
She's an egg?

THE DOCTOR
She can start again! Live her life from scratch. If we take her home, give herto a different family, tell 'em to bring her up properly, she might be allright!

JACK
Or she might be worse.

THE DOCTOR
That's her choice.

ROSE
She's an egg.

THE DOCTOR
She's an egg.

And thus, has a chance to be saved.

It’s not pity, or good deeds, or promises or threats – the onlyway to be avoid the death penalty, the only true grace, is to be bathed by theSpirit and born again.

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

Just my thoughts,

Sean

Next up: Dalek and Parting of Ways

Christology of Who: Boomtown Part One

2011-11-16T10:00:00.000-08:00

“You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
   who remember your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them,
   you were angry.
   How then can we be saved?”
Isaiah 64:5

Here’s the story:

The Doctor catches Margaret (aka Blon Fel Fotch), a Slitheen(alien race, don’t ‘cha know) hiding in a human skin, who has twice now tried to destroy the earth.First go around it was to sell off bits of radioactive earth for profit; thistime to power a vessel (cosmic surf board, really) to escape earth.

The Doctor decides to take her home – and turn her overto the authorities.

But here’s the twist: Margaret’s homeworld has the deathpenalty, and Margaret has already been tried and sentenced in absentia. Goinghome means being punished by death.

Before they can go, the Tardis needs to be powered up, sothey have some time to kill.

I should mention a thing or two about the Tardis – the space/timeship that the Doctor travels in. It is powered by something called “the Heartof the Tardis” – a sentient energy within the big blue box.

The Heart of the Tardis is an ephemeral force, a spirit form.She is telepathic, and can guide the Doctor even from a distance. The Doctor travelswhere he likes, but the Heart will often nudge him (or push him) to specifictimes and locales.

And the Heart has the gift of tongues – she is the universaltranslator for all who travel in the Tardis.

Margaret is very impressed by the Tardis.

MARGARET
I almost feel better about being defeated. We never stood a chance. This isthe technology of the Gods.

THE DOCTOR
Don't worship me - I'd make a very bad God. You wouldn't get a day off, forstarters.

Anywho, the Doctor and company are waiting for the Heart toget refueled, and that leaves some time for Margaret to plead her case with theDoctor.

And she has all kinds of reasons why she feels the Doctor should lether avoid the death penalty.

First she tries a little guilt: if the Doctor takes her in,that makes him a murderer, right? The argument is ignored – another’s transgressiondoesn’t make Margaret any less guilty.

Then she tries to get the Doctor to pity her – and he does.But having pity on someone doesn’t erase their guilt, nor their debt.

Then she argues that she has changed, that she won’t betrying to destroy the world again. The Doctor counters that change isn’t in hernature. After all,she tries twice to poison the time lord while making thesepleas.

Then she provides proof that she can be virtuous. There wasa woman that she was going to kill, but she didn’t. See, she did a good thing!

THE DOCTOR
It doesn't mean anything.

MARGARET
I spared her life.

THE DOCTOR
You let one of them go, but that's nothing new. Every now and then, alittle victim's spared. Because she smiled... because he's got freckles... 'costhey begged... and that's how you live with yourself. That's how you slaughtermillions. Because once in a while, on a whim, if the wind's in the rightdirection... you happen to be kind.

In other words, doing some good doesn’t erase doing bad.

Her last attempt for clemency is to argue that she is notresponsible for her own behavior. It is just the way she was raised; it was hercommunity, her environment, not her.

Yeah, the Doctor doesn’t buy that either.

There is nothing that Margaret can do or say to be saved.

To be continued…

"But First, I Need To Know If We Believe the Same Things..."

2011-11-15T10:00:00.000-08:00

Jeffrey Overstreet puts together some interesting thoughts from a Christian's perspective on the dangers of listening only to those that agree with you.

Take a gander.

jmt,

Sean

Friends

2011-11-14T10:00:00.000-08:00

Today's glimmer of hope.

Got Jellybeans?

2011-11-12T10:00:00.000-08:00

Get 288,000 of them, and you can make a music video.

BADD: My Character Would Never Say That

2011-11-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty proud of this one - I have wanted to write this character since my days working with Howard Stein (he wasn't fond of actors whose characters "would never say that.")

Christology of Who: More On "The Doctor Dances"

2011-11-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

A look at a few of the spiritual themes in Doctor Who,episode “The Doctor Dances” by Steven Moffat

For an earlier discussion of these episodes and a synopsis,go here.

There is a very moving, deeply moving moment in “The DoctorDances.”

Thing is, I completely missed it first go around, because I didn’thave a clue yet as to how ridiculously momentous that moment was.

After watching the following few years with David Tennant,and I got to understand what was happening.

The moment is after the nanogenes start to learn, and the Doctormakes a plea to the universe:

THE DOCTOR
Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one.

He is indeed given “this one,” and the nanogenes do theirwork. And not only is the boy healed, but everyone is healed.

THE DOCTOR
Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once. Everybody lives!

There’s the moment, the deep deep moment: the joy of theDoctor is unbounded, he has reason to dance – everybody lives!

That is so momentous because it is so rare.

Yes, the Doctor saves the day, time after time. But italmost always comes at a heavy price.

In the end, the majority of humanity is all right; but alongthe way, many are lost.

This is one source of the Doctor’s deep sadness – the weightof those that weren’t saved in the process of saving those that are.

Doing right has a cost; conquering evil has a cost.

Letters of Note has a letter on its site written by anAmerican OSS officer to his son. One of the many remarkable things is that theletter is written on Adolf Hitler’s stationary. (You can see the letter here.)

After the fall of Hitler, the author got his hands on some stationary, and sent this letter:

Dear Dennis,

The man who might have written on this card once controlled Europe— three short years ago when you were born. Today he is dead, his memorydespised, his country in ruins. He had a thirst for power, a low opinion of manas an individual, and a fear of intellectual honesty. He was a force for evilin the world. His passing, his defeat — a boon to mankind. But thousands diedthat it might be so. The price for ridding society of bad is always high.

Love, Daddy

The Doctor has a right to dance – he has been given a greatgift. For once, just once! everybody lives!

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God iseternal life.

Just my thoughts,

Sean

Next up: Boomtown

Headline

2011-11-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

Insight into how various news outlets come up with their headlines:

Christology of Who: The Doctor Dances

2011-11-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

From Empty to Child

A look at a few of the spiritual themes in Doctor Who,episodes “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances” by Steven Moffat

SPOILER ALERT: As welook at this Doctor Who episode, I wanted to give my warning again: I will begiving away the end of the episode.

What you need to know:

In the frequently bombarded, WWII London, a ghostly boy offive, wearing a gas mask, wanders the streets calling for his mummy. The childdoesn’t seem to have much vocabulary or understanding beyond asking, “Are youmy mummy?”

Oh, and he isn’t wearing a gas mask, his face is a gas mask. And anyone he touches,becomes sick, dies, and is reanimated with a face turned into a gas mask.

The boy targets a girl named Nancy,following her throughout the town, persistently asking, “Are you my muumy?”

The cause of the troubles is a space ambulance that hascrashed in London. The ambulancewas full of nanogenes – the way they heal is by invading the body of thepatient and rebuilding the dna to replace the sickly parts.

When the ambulance crashed, the only “patient” nearby wasthe boy – already dead and wearing a gas mask. The nanogenes didn’t know what ahuman was supposed to be, and assumed the gas mask as a face, and rebuilt theboy as best they could – animated outside, near empty inside.

And then assumed that all of humanity was supposed to belike this dead boy – and so whenever the nanogenes are transferred to another,they remake the new person in the image of the scared masked boy looking forhis mother.

Before I continue, here’s a story from history:

Jesus of Nazareth was traveling about with his disciples,teaching and healing. One day as they walked along a road, they came across aleper.

Leprosy is a highly contagious disease that disfigures thevictim; in that day there was no known cure. As such, lepers where labeled “unclean,”and laws strictly forbade any physical contact.

This leper fell to his knees in the path of Jesus and the disciples.

“Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean,” he calledout.

So what did Jesus do? Not caring what would happen tohimself, he reached out and touched the leper, saying,

“I am willing. Be clean.”

And the man was instantly cured of his disease. The healedman then went about the countryside, blabbing about his healing, which broughteven more crowds to the healer.

Now back to the Doctor:

At the climax of the story, the Doctor, Nancy, Rose and Jackare at the site of the crash, and the Doctor has figured out what the nanogenesare doing. But, alas, there is no weapon that can stop the little healers from destroyingall of humanity.

All the gasmaskers show up, led by the little boy, stillcalling for his mummy.

And the Doctor figures out one more thing – why the boykeeps chasing down Nancy. Up tonow, it has been thought (by Nancy’sown lie) that the boy is her brother. But she is a bit older than she looks...

The Doctor encourages her to face the truth, and answer theboy.

THE CHILD
Are you my mummy?

NANCY
(kneeling before him)
I'm here.

THE CHILD
Are you my mummy?

NANCY
(whispers)
Yes.

THE DOCTOR
(to Rose)
He doesn't understand. There's not enough of him left.

Nancy looks at herlittle boy.

NANCY
(tearful, sincere)
I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry.

And she takes him into her arms,no longer caring what will happen. The nanogenes surround them, making themglow with a golden light.

Please note that little bit of action – she takes the childin her arms, not caring what will happen to herself.

The nanogenes wrap up the duo, and when they separate, theboy takes off his gasmask – back from the dead and fully healed.

As the doctor explains, the nanogenes recognized the motheras the true model, and corrected their mistake.
Then, with prompting from the Doctor, thenanogenes revisit all the people they’ve corrupted, and heal them.

And not just from the damage done by the nanogenes – but fromall prior damage. They are now in perfect health.

Here are a few things that I took away from these stories.

Transformation startswith an act of love and transformation is risky. It starts with a reachingout, a touching – and such actions comes with risk of infection.

Transformation is agift from the outside. The power doesn’t come from within, but is sparkedby the outside. We can’t transform ourselves on our own; but perhaps we can bethe catalyst to someone else’s transformation.

Transformation iscontagious. From the example of the empty child becoming a boy named Jamieagain, others likewise afflicted are able to be saved. One leper healed on theroad leads to crowds coming for healing and teaching.

Transformationrequires a modeling of the healthy DNA. The nanogenes were working on the wrong model,and needed to encounter the correct model before they could be set right.(Likewise, the leper’s body was working on the wrong model…)

An act of love, a risk, a transformation, a modeling.

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.

“I am willing,” he said.

Just my thoughts,

Sean

ps I do have one more point to make on this episode, but let’shold that off for next time, shall we?

Episode transcripts pulled from Who Transcripts.

Critical Positives

2011-11-07T18:10:00.000-08:00

From the desk of "people smarter than me" comes an artist's look at critique.

"5 Positive Things Critiques Can Do For You" is a good read for anyone who puts their work into the world. Take a gander.

Just my thoughts,

Sean

BADD: More Wise Counsel

2011-11-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

I cameo in this one: